


True Love's Kiss

by dangerliesbeforeyou



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: (hells yEAH they do), (like only a teeny tiny bit), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cute, Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, IT Chapter Two Fix-It, Kissing, M/M, Minor Angst, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, True Love's Kiss, all the other losers are here too, but they only hav a few lines each... this is mainly focused on reddie lol, rated t mainly for language, this is just nearly 10000 words of fluffy reddie ramblings lol, told from richie's perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:00:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23398873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dangerliesbeforeyou/pseuds/dangerliesbeforeyou
Summary: Everything happens kinda the same in the cavern except Richie kisses Eddie before going off to bully the clown (not a euphemism) & he lives through the Power of True Love™️(Aka I wrote this as an idea at like 1am one night so excuse cheesiness... this is a fixit fic for It chapter 2... of course)
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 121





	True Love's Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> So i fell into It (& reddie) hell so here i am... this is just an idea i had rly late at night that i thought could b cute... like it’s by no means an original idea in any way, & i’ve never written the characters before so sorry if they feel a bit ooc ... 
> 
> also, gotta warn u, i've only seen chapter 2 once so sorry if the details r a bit hazy (i'd watch it again but...... i dont want my heart to get ripped out again u feel me??)
> 
> (the title is peak cheesiness i kno lol... i'm not sorry)
> 
> Anyway hope u enjoy this mess!

Every noise was suddenly muffled, the air crackled in slow motion, as Richie desperately clutched his jacket to the open wound in Eddie’s chest.  
  
He wasn’t even sure if he had processed that; the gaping hole in his friends chest, that is. Time had felt warped ever since he got caught in those goddamn deadlights and he was pretty sure he dreamt through the rest.  
  
And now he’s knelt on the filth of the caverns floor, his hands and chest covered in splatters of blood (Eddies blood, his brain reminded him unhelpfully... If Richie ever valued the concept of meditation and mindfulness it was at that moment... He’d really have given anything to shut his fucking brain up at that second), and he’s frantically muttering things, he thinks.  
  
Eddie was also speaking, maybe. His voice sounds gurgled, like he was talking around some mouthwash or something (He’s talking around his own blood, his brain muttered bitterly again. He almost cursed himself out loud, but the connection between his brain and mouth had an even greater distance than usual that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to frame a thought as conscious words even if he tried).  
  
The others were around them, and they were yelling (or perhaps they were whispering, he really couldn’t tell) about the towering clown spider hybrid still let loose in the cave. Richie couldn’t really bring himself to care about It at that moment, though, too hyper focused on his panicking to worry about ‘saving the world’ or some shit...  
  
(Although, was it really saving the world if the bitch-ass clown was only really feasting on one shit-hole town in one godforsaken country? Really, for an apparently all-powerful alien creature, It was kinda shit...)  
  
Richie was pulled out of his thoughts with the sound of his own name being called softly from below him. He snapper his head up from Eddie’s chest to look at his face. The others seemed to have quietened down at that point, or perhaps they were still screaming… He still couldn’t tell with the whooshing sound crossing over his ears.  
  
‘Yeah Eds?’ He asked croakily, his voice hoarse from overuse. It sounded deafening as it echoed across them both.  
  
‘Rich... I realised, I think I know how to kill It’ He muttered, pausing briefly to cough. ‘We have to... make it ... feel ... small’  
  
He wheezed out the last part, which made Richie’s heart ache with how much it reminded him of Eddie as a kid... That wheezy hypochondriac dick with two goddamn fanny packs who would determinedly find something to rant about every 30 seconds or else he might explode... That adorable doe eyed brave little boy who Richie fell instantly head over heels in love with... He was so caught up in his own head he barely even processed Eddie’s words.  
  
Luckily the others seemed to have heard him and were desperately trying to piece together some kind of plan.  
  
‘So we have to essentially bully the goddamn clown?’ Richie interrupted whoever was speaking suddenly, his tone incredulous. ‘Which sounds kinda like a euphemism for beating your meat, let’s be real...’  
  
‘B-beep beep’ Bill said as the others groaned. Despite this, Richie could tell his joke had brought a glimmer of relief to their expressions and body language... He guessed he really wasn’t the only one of them who relied on humour as a defence mechanism. They all looked so exhausted, and Richie’s heart hurt from seeing it… What did any of them ever do to deserve this shit, for real? Is it because they stole medical supplies when they were 13? Maybe Richie told one too many ‘I fucked your mum’ joke and God or whoever decided ‘right, that’s it, these assholes deserve ultimate punishment’. What had Stan fucking done to deserve…? Richie didn’t let himself finish that thought, preferring to file everything Stan related in a cabinet far locked away in his mind, nicely nestled next to the 3000 page long novel of his repressed sexuality… He shook his head manically and brought himself back to the present.  
  
The others had started to move towards It in determined strides, each loser yelling as many insults at the clown as they could think of. Richie was about to stand up and join them when he felt something tug on his arm (which was still hovered above the jacket on Eddie’s chest). He whipped his head round, fixing his eyes with Eddie’s, who was also looking at him imploringly.  
  
‘Richie... I-I need to tell you... something else,’ Eddie gasped out, his voice sounding surprisingly calm despite his situation. (Really, trust Eddie Fucking Kaspbrak to finally find some sort of inner peace only when he’s on his literal death bed).  
  
Richie wanted to tell him not to speak, to save his strength, but there was a cruel part of him that worried this would be the last opportunity he’d get to hear whatever Eddie had to say.  
  
‘Wh-what is it, Eds?’ He stammered, hands still gripping his jacket tightly against the stab wound.  
  
‘I- I-‘Was all Eddie could get out for a second before he took a deep, shaking breath. ‘I fucked your mum.’  
  
...  
  
His brain short circuited. He really didn’t know what he expected... Half of him wanted to laugh hysterically, the other half of him wanted to just full on weep onto Eddie’s shoulder.  
  
That’s when Richie could feel himself actually crying (hell, he might have been crying the entire time), a choking sob lurched out of him as he moved his hands to gently caress the uninjured side of Eddie’s face. He knew it probably felt gross, a mixture of clammy wetness and half dried blood, and if Eddie had been in a lucid state he’d have complained.  
  
Instead the other was just looking up at him with sleepy, half lidded eyes. There was a hint of a smile there too, which made no sense since Richie couldn’t find anything to smile about in that moment...  
  
‘Hey, hey’ Richie murmured under his breath as Eddie’s eyes started to close. ‘Stay with me, stay with me’  
  
He could hear the others shouting energetically at the clown behind him, and he knew he probably should go and help them, even though that meant leaving Eddie.  
  
‘Look Eds, I- I need to go help the others... No better person to bully a shitting space clown then a Trashmouth like me, huh?’ He huffed a half laugh, half sob, his hand still firmly clasped onto Eddie’s cheek. ‘But I’ll be right back, okay? Right back’  
  
He knew he sounded slightly frantic; but that was only because he was.  
  
Eddie didn’t say anything, but his mouth quirked slightly at the corner, his eyes still dopey and half-closed.  
  
‘Right back...’ Richie said more to himself, leaning forward to press his lips briefly to Eddie’s, before pushing himself off the ground and rushing off to the others.

…

  
When asked, he would try to claim the kiss was a spur of the moment thing, a whim, something with little to no thought behind it whatsoever. But really, if he’d been thinking of kissing Eddie for nearing 30 odd years, could it really be described as a whim?  
  
But for all intents and purposes, in that precise moment, yes, the kiss had been a sudden flying fancy. He just couldn’t have Eddie die without at least somewhat telling him how he felt. And to be honest, if Eddie had actually died it may have served that purpose. Unfortunately, a quick kiss in the heat of the moment wasn’t quite as ‘telling’ as Richie had hoped.  
  
See, Richie had never been very good at telling people things. Talking his ass off? Fuck yes! But telling people things of importance, things about him, his deepest darkest (dirty) secrets? No thank you!  
  
For matters of the heart he was always a ‘show, don’t tell’ kind of guy, unless those matters were of his actual heart (which was all about Eddie, since the dickwad basically owned it at this point, of course... He’d scoff at how sappy that sounded if it wasn’t so goddamn ridiculously true that it hurt), where he was a ‘don’t tell, don’t tell’ kind of guy.  
  
Translation: Richie Tozier was a goddamn mess.  
  
  
Richie then spent the next few minutes after he’d kissed the literal love of his life yelling at a clown, which really wasn’t as fun as it sounded. He and the other’s had then crushed that bastard’s squishy enlarged heart in their combined grip (which was disgusting, even to Richie, and he remembered thinking how grossed out Stan and Eddie would’ve been by the action...).

…  
  
And then it was over...  
  
Except, it wasn’t, because just as the joy of defeating It had settled in, the whole cavern began to shake. Rocks started falling around them, small ones at first, but they could all see large expanses of the jagged walls begin to break away in slabs.  
  
They all started yelling again, telling each other to _get the fuck out of there_!  
  
Richie ran on wobbly legs towards where Eddie had been lying, only to find him gone. Only his jacket, still covered in splatters of blood, lay crumpled in his place.  
  
A deep seated fear bubbled up inside of Richie. Fear that It wasn’t really dead, fear that Eddie had crawled away from the spot and then got crushed by a falling rock of some kind, fear that Eddie was gone for good and he never even got the chance to say goodbye or to tell him how much he...  
  
‘Guys, guys! Over here!’ A voice called from the other end of the cave. ‘There’s a better way out here!’  
  
It maybe have been because he’d just been thinking about him, but that voice sounded suspiciously like Eddie...  
  
‘Eddie?’ Someone else hollered back over the din of the rocks falling around them (Richie was too in shock to distinguish between his friend’s voices at that point...).  
  
‘Who the fuck else would it be? Santa Claus?!’ Eddie yelled back in a familiar annoyed tone.  
  
This apparently was all they all needed to spur them into action (that, and the fucking massive boulder hurtling towards them from the ceiling), and they all began to run towards the sound of Eddie’s voice.  
  
Richie ran without even thinking, his gangly legs somehow avoiding stumbling too much on the uneven cavern floor. Bill had reached Eddie first (the guy sure could run fast, despite him being so much shorter than Richie. He made a note to rib Bill about this later, when they were, you know, not in immediate danger...) and both had begun to scramble through a small opening in the wall.  
  
The foul stench of greywater filled Richie’s nostrils, alerting him to the fact this was definitely a sewage tunnel they were heading into. And although that definitely didn’t fill him with any immediate joy, he was at least comforted with the knowledge that sewer tunnels would hopefully lead them to open air.  
They all squeezed through the gap and began to wade through god knows what (well, Richie knew exactly what they were wading through but decided he’d rather not think about that for the time being... It’s not as if being waist deep in sewage water was anything he wasn’t used to at this point... Frankly he was doing it so often it could almost be counted as a hobby).  
  
None of them were talking, the only noise other than the distant sounds of rocks falling and the sloshing of the greywater was their heavy breaths. They were really all too old to be dealing with this shit.  
  
The tunnel seemed endless, every turn felt like it was leading them further into the system. Eventually, though, Bill yelled from a little in front of Richie (who was trailing behind the rest, given all his friends were apparently 40 year old fitness freaks and he was just a mortal man who maybe drank a little too much and didn’t exercise enough... In his defence, people didn’t pay to see him for his level of hotness) that he could finally see light at the end of the tunnel (literally).  
  
Richie let out a small woop in reply, which made the rest of the losers start to giggle. Soon, though, they were all full-on laughing. Richie found himself unable to stop the cackle from coming up his throat, and even though he was severely out of breath and deathly tired, he let himself be taken away by the sheer elation of being alive.  
  
They were still laughing as they stepped out of the tunnel into the fresh outside air, although for some (Richie) the laughing had turned into a half coughing fit.  
  
The brightness of daylight caused them all to squint, not instantly aware of where they had ended up, until Ben, hand shielding the brightest rays of the sun from his eyes, turned to them all with a bemused look on his still smiling face.  
  
‘This is the Barrens?’ His tone was half questioning, which made sense. Richie glanced around, letting his eyes readjust to the light, and could confirm that Ben was right... That endless tunnel had led them straight into the wilderness of the Barrens. Richie almost scoffed, what kind of fairy-tale bullshit would bring their story so completely full circle to arrive back at where they’d first begun to come together as a group?! Although, given the fact Eddie was currently still alive and not lying in a pool of his own blood back in the cavern was enough to convince Richie that maybe their whole lives were one.  
  
Oh yeah, Eddie.  
  
Richie was surprised he hadn’t actually given the man a second thought until that moment. Ok, that was a lie. He’d given him about 700 thoughts in his traipsing through the tunnels. He’d just not allowed himself to linger too much on them, in fear that he’d start crying (again). He’d also been so far back behind the others that he hadn’t actually gotten a good look at the other man.  
  
But now they were out in the open, the afternoon sun beating down on their filth covered clothes and skin, he found his eyes were drawn to the small stature of Eddie currently hunched on a rocked with Bill, staring at his hands sombrely. As if feeling someone watching him, Eddie looked up from his hands and made eye contact with Richie from across the stream. He pulled his face into what he hoped was a warm smile, but he was guessing probably looked more like a grimace. Some kind of emotion Richie couldn’t place flitted across Eddie’s eyes before he got up from the rock and began to walk purposefully towards him.  
  
He stopped a few steps away from Richie, his feet shuffling in his hesitation, before he half lunged forward and wrapping him in the biggest hug. Richie was frozen for a moment, before he felt himself bring his arms up to pull Eddie even closer to his chest. He let his hand run down the other’s back, half expecting to feel the gaping wound that had been caused by It’s giant claw. Instead, though, there was only the tear in his clothes and the smooth skin of his back. They both smelled gross, and they were both still soaking wet from the greywater, but the warm and solid presence of a very alive Eddie in his arms was enough to make him forget about that entirely.  
  
He had no idea how long they stayed like that, holding each other insanely tightly, but eventually he felt Eddie begin to pull away from the hug and take a small step back. Richie let his eyes wonder to Eddie’s chest then, even though he knew he’d not see a wound there either. Eddie must have noticed his gaze as a moment later he brought his hand to Richie’s chin and lifted his face up.  
  
‘I’m okay, I’m here’ He said softly, it was probably the most gentle thing he’d ever said to Richie. Which is maybe why he burst into a flood of tears. Eddie looked alarmed for a second before he pulled Richie back into another hugging, rubbing his back soothingly.  
  
The others took notice of this, as they all began to walk over from where they’d been quietly contemplating to crowd around him in a comforting group hug.  
  
His broken sobs ripped through him rapidly, and he knew his face was streaked with rivers of tear tracks at this point. It was the relief of them all being alive (except Stan, his brain annoyingly reminded him... Because his brain was a complete dick), the relief of having actually defeated It, the relief of Eddie being alive and not dead... He felt the sobs begin to subside, as he gingerly raised his head from where it had been tucked into the side of Eddie’s neck (which he did not remember doing...).  
  
He glanced round at the others, all their tired faces weirdly so serene as they all stood in the middle of a dirty stream, covered in sewage, arms all tangled together. These crazy, beautiful, amazing people who he forgot for so long but loved so dearly... The thought almost made him start crying again. (God, when had he become such a sap?! Another part of his brain told him he’d always been a sap; he just hid it under layers of defensive humour… He really could do without the therapy session in his own head thank you very much!).  
  
Eddie raised his head to make eye contact with Richie again, the same strange expression from earlier passed across his face before his face broke out into a wide, if a bit wet (since it was only now that he noticed the not-so-small gathering of unshed tears in Eddies eyes) smile. He smiled back as best he could, before he felt the others began to loosen their grips.  
  
Once disentangled, Richie cleared his throat aggressively before clapping his hands together loudly.  
  
‘Right, so now we’ve got the 6 person bonding sesh out of the way, where to next my good fellows?’ His voice morphed into his English butler impression. ‘May perhaps we find another alien-demon-clown hybrid for us to torment to death?’  
  
The others rolled their eyes affectionately at him.  
  
‘I don’t know about any of you, but I could do with a three hour long bath right about now’ Eddie exclaimed tiredly, wrinkling his nose as he glanced down at the state he was in. There were a few loud groans of agreement from the others.  
  
‘Thought you’d be more worried about infection in your battle scar, Eds’ Richie asked, suddenly remembering the fact Eddie had been fucking stabbed by _two_ psychos that day... ‘Bit of a downer if we went through all that only to have you keel over from sepsis, or some shit’  
  
Bev gave a not-so-subtle shove, which wasn’t enough to conceal the smile threatening to break through on her face.  
  
‘Beep beep, dickhead!’ Eddie scowled, but not with too much feeling. It was a fond sorta ‘I hate you but reluctantly will put up with your bullshit for the sake of our friendship’ kind of scowl, one that made Richie’s heart ache inexplicably. He raised his hand to remove the bandage only to pause, his brows constricting into a confused frown. He then pulled the bandage off in one swift motion, wincing as the tape caught in some baby hairs, and the losers gasped in shock at what they saw.

…  
  
Nothing. The deep gash where Bowers had shoved a knife into Eddie’s face had completely vanished, not even a faint line of a scar remained.  
  
‘Well... guess that solves that problem’ Richie commented with a slightly dazed tone of voice.  
  
Eddie turned swiftly to Mike, who looked equally as perplexed as the others, wagging his hand almost accusatively as he spoke.  
  
‘So is this something else you forgot to tell us about, Mike? Miraculous tissue regrowth due to fucking alien clown... whatever?’  
  
‘No, no... I have... no idea how or why this has happened!’ Mike answered honestly, his hands held up in defence.  
  
‘What do you remember from b-before?’ Bill asked with curiosity, his stutter was still slipping into conversation here and there, though as the adrenaline and fear in their systems died down, Richie figured it would probably go all together.  
  
Eddie glanced at Richie then; for a split second, half a split second, a split of half a split second, half a... You get the idea. Before frowning again, this time in concentration.  
  
(Richie had once prided himself in being able to distinguish the many forms Eddie Kaspbrak’s frown could take on... There was the genuinely annoyed (usually when he was talking about Bowers or his mother), the half annoyed half fond (usually directed at Richie), the concentrating one (complete with adorable tongue sticking out to the side motions), the scared one (It was mostly responsible for that one), the list goes on... And even though this Eddie was 27 years older than the Eddie he had studied so religiously; Richie had a strong feeling most of those hadn’t changed one single bit...)

‘Well, I saw Richie get his dumb ass stuck in the deadlights (Richie weakly called out a ‘hey’ in protest at this declaration) so ran that clown bitch in with the fence pole, and then I was standing over Rich and … and that motherfucker stabbed me with his shitting claw or some shit?’ He began, brow still furrowed as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘After that everything felt super… hazy… I was in so much pain, but it also didn’t really hurt? If that makes any sense?’

Richie called out a ‘no’ only to be punched not-so-lightly in the arm by Bev, who also shushed him for good measure. Eddie continued.

‘Anyway, so I remember you all crowding around me screaming about things? And I told you how to defeat it, you’re welcome for that by the way!’ He waggled his finger accusatively at them as he said that, which Richie really shouldn’t have found as endearing as he did… ‘And then you all wondered off and I… No, Richie stayed… and I told him something? I can’t remember what… But then he left too and… No wait…’

He paused, glancing at Richie with a bemused look on his face, before saying. ‘You kissed me?’

…

There was a pin drop as everyone gaped at Richie in confusion. He cleared his throat obviously, determinedly refusing to look Eddie in the eye.

‘Oh… um… Did I?’ Richie replied weakly, glancing around at everyone’s shocked expressions, finally falling on Eddie’s face who looked… Scared? He sighed before deciding to come clean… He was sick of lying about shit to be completely honest… ‘Fine, ok yeah maybe I… maybe I gave you a kiss but in my… defence, I was convinced you were gonna just go and fucking die on me, man, and I was just so… so fucking scared…’

His voice broke a little at the end, and he prayed to every God that he wasn’t going to start crying again.

The fear in Eddie’s face had morphed into a look so touched and surprised that Richie almost kissed him again out of the sheer endearment of it.

‘Rich…’ He started, a tear starting to fall from his eyes making Richie feel like he certainly would cry again or kiss him again or do something even more drastic (like get on one knee and propose, despite the fact Eddie was still fucking married).

Richie waved his hand dismissively to stop him. ‘Don’t think anything of it, Eds, I just didn’t want you to die a complete kiss-virgin… It was all on a whim, that’s all!’ He said in what he hoped sounded like a light-hearted and joke-y tone, even though his heart with pounding in his chest.

‘You know I did get fucking married, dickwad!’ Eddie retorted as he scrunched his brow up adorably. He then seemed to pause again, glancing briefly around at the others, a nervous expression crossing his face. ‘What did I actually… Say to you… Down there, that is?’

‘I Fucked your mum’ Richie replied swiftly with a slight grin on his face. As happy as he was to not have them been Eddie’s last words to him, he kind of loves that they almost were… It was so ‘them’, after all.

‘Beep beep, dick!’ Eddie exclaimed, the frown returning to his face with a vengeance. ‘I’m being serious! I can’t remember what I said to you and it might be… Important or something…’

‘I am being serious, Speghead! Your honest-to-God last words to me down there were ‘I fucked your mum’…’ Richie held up his hands, as if that would prove his innocence. ‘Honestly though, you fucking wish! Maggie Tozier was a babe and any of you’d be lucky to have bed her even for a sec’

There was a chorus of ‘ugh Richie you’re so gross’ or something to that effect, but they were all laughing quite raucously too, so he counted it as a win. Eddie was giving him a soft smile, too, which wouldn’t be strange except it kind of felt like he was thanking him for… something? He didn’t let himself linger on that (filing it back with ‘thinking about Stan’s death’ and ‘the Gay thing’) and started to think of a way to steer conversation back to their next plan of action until Ben piped up once his laughter had subsided.

‘Maybe that explains it, then?’ He said with a look and tone that said he thought he was saying something so obvious, though judging by the confused looks the others gave him, he was making as little sense as if he’d started spouting some architectural bullshit. ‘I mean, maybe Richie’s kiss was what brought Eddie ‘back’, so to speak?’

More confused looks, especially from the subjects being discussed.

‘As in, remember when Bev got taken by It and she was stuck in the deadlights? And I… um… I kissed her and she woke up?’ The last part was mumbled, because Ben was a bloody handsome dick who also so happened to be one of the nicest and humblest guys you would ever meet… Really, if Richie didn’t love him so much, he’d probably hate him. Everyone nodded at his words, though, since it was kind of super hard to forget that one summer when they defeated a space clown (well, make that two summers now, I suppose…). ‘Well, maybe it worked the same this time?’

Ben looked at them all expectantly, not too dissimilar from an excited puppy (Richie made a mental note to make a photo-montage of that at some point… He had no real reasoning behind it, just that it’d probably be fucking adorable… Wait, there was some kind of conversation happening in the real world right…?).

‘It’s surely an interesting theory, Haystack, but I don’t really think our situations were that similar…’ Richie clasped a hand on Ben’s shoulder as he spoke. ‘See, you and Miss Ringwald, even back then when you were wee little winkles, were madly and insanely in love with each other… Like soulmate level bullshit, you two were made for each other it’s kinda fucking gross, actually’

He scrunched up his nose in fake distaste before continued.

‘But then… maybe if we can bully a goddamn space clown into submission, then maybe whatever bullshit fairy tale logic means I somehow smooched ol’ Spaghetti back to life… or something? What’d you think Eds?’

Richie turned to Eddie who was frowning again and looking down at his hands. (This was the ‘probably overthinking about something’ frown, which Richie usually associated with anything to do with Eddie’s mother… Seeing it again on an adult Eddie made his heart tug uncomfortable… Really though, his heart had been bouncing around so much in his chest that day that he wouldn’t be surprised he’d end up going into cardiac arrest in the next couple of hours or so!). He glanced up, noticing suddenly that everyone was looking at him, and cleared his throat.

‘Oh, um… I don’t know… I suppose it could have just been a fluke thing? I mean… Any of you probably could have kissed me back to life, probably?’ He said in a dazed sorta voice, as if he wasn’t really thinking that hard about what he was saying.

‘Oh, gee thanks Eds!’ Richie exclaimed, which made Eddie snap out of his stupor slightly. He clutched his hand to his chest in a mock aghast way. ‘Here’s me thinking I was special to you!’

Eddie snorted and rolled his eyes but didn’t grace that with a reply. Bill thankfully chose that moment to say that they should all get back to the town house to wash, and probably get some food (no fortune cookies this time! Richie has requested loudly, causing everyone to laugh), swiftly putting an end to the conversation.

On the walk back, Richie couldn’t help but stew over Ben’s words… If it had been his kiss that had brought Eddie back, then what did that mean? Ben’s kiss had worked because he’d been sickeningly head over heels for Bev at that moment, and the feeling had been mutual, despite Bev being a bit too dense to realise it at the time. (Richie couldn’t really blame her, though… Bill was rather distracting…). His and Eddie’s situation though? He may have been suffocatingly in love with Eddie, but he was also pretty sure the feeling wasn’t mutual (the only suffocating feelings Eddie probably felt around him was the insistent desire to suffocate him, Richie thought to himself with a grin). So perhaps it had just been through Richie’s undying love that Eddie had survived, a prospect that should have elated him but really just made him petrified. Because, really, the pressure that that puts on a guy is a little intense… Or maybe Eddie was right, and it was all just a fluke, a freak accident… Eddie was maybe already always going to survive the cavern experience, and Richie, with his already massively enlarged ego, decided to make the whole thing about him. That last one felt the most likely, if a tad depressing…

The walk back seemed to simultaneously last forever and take no time at all. No one gave them a second glance as they walked through the town. Well, the kids they passed gave them odd stares, which told them that maybe all the sewer dirt caked to their clothes was actually invisible to other adults the same way the blood in Bev’s bathroom had been… Richie assumed that was supposed to be a comment on how unobservant we become as adults, but to be fair he wasn’t really interested in getting into the metaphors behind alien clowns at that moment, all he wanted to do was curl up into a bathtub and sleep for a couple hours. And judging by the hunched shoulders and chorus of yawns from the other losers, the feeling was mutual. He kept chancing glances at Eddie as he walked, who seemed to be perpetually in deep thought, his hand absentmindedly coming up to rub his now-uninjured cheek every now and then.

Eventually they arrived at the town inn and they all went their separate ways to wash up and recuperate, agreeing to meet back in the hall in a couple hours to go and get some food. Richie tried to keep his thoughts from straying to Eddie and the kiss situation in those hours, which obviously meant he thought of literally nothing else in that time. Ben and Bev were already downstairs when he went to meet them, both had obviously been in the midst of whispering sweet nothings to each other, or whatever the fuck real couples do, when they noticed him come down and offered him disgustingly fond smiles. He gave one back, of course, because he was a self-proclaimed sap ad he might as well embrace it at this point. Eddie, Mike and Bill joined them after a few minutes, and they all made their way to an independent Indian restaurant a few blocks away (Mike swore their naan was the best this side of the hemisphere, which really wasn’t saying much since he’d never actually left Derry, but Richie wasn’t about to ruin the guys dreams… Especially when he was finally looking more relaxed and happy then he ever had).

They came back to the town inn a good few hours later, full and buzzy slightly from the food and alcohol they’d consumed. (Not as much as the previous night, thankfully… Richie wasn’t entirely convinced this wasn’t a whole drunken induced nightmare his brain had come up with…). And they quickly bid each other good night, because they were old as fuck and it had been a goddamn long ass day! Bev and Mike hugged him tightly before they left, whilst Ben and Bill gave him a solid clap on the shoulder (which he knew was essentially straight man speak for ‘we love you man’), leaving Eddie and him alone outside their respective doors. They made eye contact, Eddie offered him a smile which definitely didn’t quite reach his eyes, which Richie wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret.

‘Night, Rich’ He said quickly, before practically running into his room, not even letting Richie utter out a small ‘Goodnight’ back. Confused, but also too tired to dwell on it at that point, he went into his own room. He was just getting a few bed clothes out of his bag (which consisted of just a t-shirt, because he was convinced actual adults who wear pyjamas have something to hide and certainly cannot be trusted…), when he heard the sound of a door opening and closing along the hall. A door that sounded suspiciously close to his, followed by almost silent footsteps.

  
Then, there was a soft, but solid tap on his door just as he had turned towards the bathroom, ready to get dressed for bed. Opening the door, he was surprised to find Eddie standing there, still fully dressed, with a determined but nervous expression on his face.

‘Well hello again, Eddie Spaghetti, long time no s-‘

‘I couldn’t sleep’ Eddie blurted out, turning red as he said it.

‘Um… well that might have been because you need to actually get into bed and close your eyes before you fall asleep, Eds…’ Richie felt the grin slowly spread on his face as he delighted in watching Eddie squirm with embarrassment. He put on a mock worried expression and tone of voice as he continued. ‘Is this your problem? You can never get to sleep cos no one showed you how, so you’re just a tiny bundle of angsty rage instead? This explains SO mu-‘

‘Ok ok, I get it, you can shut up now asshole!’ Eddie hissed. ‘I just… I just wanted to ask you something… Can I come in?’

His tone turned imploring at the end, as if he was genuinely worried Richie would turn him away. Really, did that man know him at all? Didn’t he realise he could literally ask Richie to get the fuck out of his room and camp out in that greywater filled sewer and he fucking would! He was 110% what the kids would call ‘whipped as fuck’ for the guy and he was not ashamed to admit it! (Only in his head, though, of course…).

‘Sure thing, Eddie Spaghetti Head!’ He replied enthusiastically, offering him a deep and wobbly bow as he opened his door wide enough for the other to walk through. He thought he heard a muttered ‘don’t fucking call me that’ under Eddie’s breath, but that may have been just the ghost of him saying it 100 times every day when they were kids.

Richie closed the door carefully, before turning around to face whatever it was Eddie wanted to talk about. Worry was gnawing at his insides, but he tried his best to ignore it, putting on his best ‘game face’ (which was really just his normal face, just with a tad more over enthusiastic dick joke based humour to deflect on than usual…). Eddie was hovering next to the bed awkwardly, which in itself was a strange image, since Eddie had never been awkward around him before. Even after the whole revealing of the kiss thing earlier, he never tried to distance himself from Richie or give the impression that he was feeling awkward about it… He was suddenly filled with unease, as if they hadn’t actually defeated It and this Eddie-shaped thing in front of him was actually It reborn! Or perhaps It’s long lost evil twin brother ‘That’, who specialises in eating sad 40-year-old gay comedians…

‘What did I actually say to you?’ Eddie’s voice brought him back to the present.

Richie looked at him blankly.

‘When we were down in the cavern, what did I say to you... my ‘last words’, so to speak?’ He continued, ringing his hands and looking a notch down from ‘completely terrified’, which put Richie’s mind at rest of this being another version of It (or That…).

‘Eds... I told you what you said-‘ Richie began carefully.

‘Yeah, but I know that was a joke just to avoid saying the actual thing in front of the others... Because I remember saying I had to tell you something, and I know what I wanted to say but I... I don’t know what I did actually say…’ Eddie said stiltedly, still looking awkward hovering next to the bed (Richie looking equally awkward stood at a little distance away near the door).

‘Eddie, you said ‘I fucked your mum’, genuinely... wish I was kidding but that was your honest to god last words before the ‘resurrection’’ Richie held up his hands in air quotes at ‘resurrection’.

Eddie paused and frowned, breathing deeply through his nose. He then turned and plopped himself down on Richie’s (actually decently made, thank you very much) bed. Richie took this as his cue to sit down next to him, keeping a small space between them (leaving room for Jesus, his brain supplied, which almost made him snort out loud). 

‘Oh I.... I just thought because ...you kissed me that I’d said... something else but...?’ Eddie stuttered out, not looking at Richie, instead seeming to find his hands immensely interesting. (Richie noticed he kept fiddling with the ring on his finger, spinning it around restless).

‘Nope...’ He said awkwardly, popping the ‘p’ in the hopes of appearing light-hearted, not entirely sure what Eddie was trying to say… ‘What was it you thought you said?’

‘Oh it was... Nothing it was... Why’d you kiss me then??’ Eddie said with a dismissive tone which wasn’t quite dismissive…

‘I said earlier, it was just like a whim, impulse... I don’t know why I did it’ He replied with a laugh, an awkward laugh, because this whole conversation felt so goddamn awkward! Was it because they were old? Had they really lost all that ease of conversation from when they were kids? No… It can’t be, because they had been riffing off each other perfectly fine in the Jade of the Orient restaurant… Richie couldn’t actually believe he was admitting this, but he kinda missed the place! It was like the last normal moment between all of them before shit hit the fan.

‘I just assumed you... but yeah it doesn’t matter… I’ll just go, we’re both tired, night Ri-’ Eddie begun to stand up, speaking so fast that it almost reminded Richie of how they normally were…

‘Hey, hey Eds, you don’t need to go yet!’ He reached out and clutched at Eddie’s sleeve, essentially half pulling him back down. Except now he was a lot closer than he was before (no room for Jesus anymore, unfortunately…). ‘Just… what did you wanna say anyway?’

‘Huh?’ He sounded dumbfounded, which really made Richie consider if the other had hit his head down in the cavern (none of them did check him over for concussion… and it would definitely explain how strange he was acting…).

‘You just said how you knew what you wanted to say to me but didn’t know if you said it? Guessing it wasn’t the mum fucking business…?’

‘Oh, it was... not important...’ There was that dismissive but not dismissive tone again…

‘Must’ve been pretty important if you waited until your dying breath to say it’ Richie said with a wiggle of his fingers. He knew he was probably pushing Eddie a bit too much, but he was really desperate to know what the other wanted to tell him… There was even a very small part of him that had a spark of hope that it was… No, he wouldn’t let himself linger on that…

Eddie sighed, still rolling his ring up and down his finger, as if it was annoying him.

‘It was just something I wanted you to know, in case... in case we didn’t get out of there...’

‘What was it?’ Richie asked hurriedly, and slightly desperately.

‘Ugh, just let it go Rich!’ Eddie waved his hands in the air, before pulling them crossed together into a defensive pose.

‘Tell meee!’ He was fully aware he was whining, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care.

‘You tell me why you kissed me then’ Eddie shot back, the familiar frown was back on his face (which was weirdly comforting to Richie, rather than the strange awkwardness that had permeated his face and tone for the majority of their conversation). He thought about Eddie’s words and realised he had two options. Option one was to take Eddie up on the offer, admit that he had kissed him because he loved him, and then deal with whatever consequences that would cause (the most probably being Eddie gently letting him down and admitting he really had wanted to admit to him that he’d stolen his favourite batman comic from years ago, or something trivial like that…). The second option was to drop the entire subject, they both go their separate ways never learning anything about either of each other, taking both their secrets to their ever-looming graves… As tempting as that second option felt to Richie, who was still so goddamn terrified of admitting things about himself, he knew he had to try and be brave… Eddie had been brave, so fucking brave, throwing a goddamn spear like a champ at It to save his sorry ass… Really the least he could do was be honest and brave for him now. (‘You’re braver than you think’ His brain unhelpfully told him; he knew those words would come back to bite him in the ass eventually). He sighed inwardly and decided to tell the truth, consequences be damned!

‘Okay... I will, if you tell me your thing... I show you mine, you show me yours, you know?’ He winked, hoping that disguised his unbridled terror.

Eddie paused, contemplating him for a second, before taking a deep breath.

‘Fine.... I wanted to tell u that... that…’ He trailed off, looking back down at his hands, before turning his face defiantly to look Richie square in the face. This caused a storm of butterflies to flutter up into his throat and he prayed to whatever God was listening that he wouldn’t vomit. ‘Wanted to tell you that I… l-love you, that was it yeah, that I... that I loved-love you and I needed you to know so... yeah...’

He trailed off again, his gaze had moved back to his hand, where he was spinning the ring even more aggressively on his finger.

Richie felt himself glitch out the moment Eddie had uttered the words ‘I love you’ in a sentence directed at him. He cleared his throat obviously.

‘Like... you mean in the ‘bro’ way?’ He asked weakly.

‘I mean, I always loved you in the ‘bro’ way...’ Eddie rolled his eyes at the term, still not looking at Richie though. ‘But this was more... I ... I loved you in a more ‘more’ way, you know?’

Eddie gulped, bringing a hand up to run through his hair.

Richie glitched out again. What the fuck did a more ‘more’ way mean?! He was having an internal panic attack, he had so many goddamn questions, but in the end all that came out was. ‘What about your wife?’

Eddie snorted at this, a self-depreciating kind of sound which made Richie want to wrap him up in a tight embrace.

‘There’s something about almost getting killed by a demon space clown that puts your marriage into perspective... She’s just like my mum, hell she is my fucking mum, shut the fuck up Rich (Richie made a small noise in protest at this, but didn’t say anything else)... she always treats me like I’m so weak and fragile and worthless and I... I don’t wanna live like that... So, I’m divorcing her’

The third glitch in Richie’s brain happened (haha, Glitchie, his brain told him, which almost made him laugh out loud… Hell, maybe he did laugh out loud, because Eddie was giving him a very strange look…) and this time it was followed by a long and stretching silence. He tried to let himself process everything but found his brain kinda wanted to explode from it all. So, Eddie loved him in a more ‘more’ way as well as in a ‘bro’ way. Eddie also was going to divorce his wife, which explained the constantly fiddling with his ring. Eddie had also been planning on telling Richie he loved him down in the sewers. Eddie had thought that he had told him he loved him in the sewers. Eddie had thought that his words are what spurred Richie into kissing him. Richie knew there was something he should probably be able to piece together there, but he really hadn’t been able to process anything properly since Eddie had said ‘I love you in a more ‘more’ way’.

‘Well? What about u?’ Eddie’s voice broke through his thoughts, he sounded nervous and impatient.

‘…About… me?’ He asked dumbly, Eddie was giving him such an expectant look, his eyes impossibly even wider and more doe-like than usual.

‘The kiss?’ He said it slowly as if he thought Richie was an idiot (which he was, but still…).

‘Oh, yeah um... well um… you’re probably not gonna believe this but’ Richie took a breath to bark out a laugh. ‘like… same?’

It was Eddie’s turn to give him a blank look.

‘I wanted to kiss you because I was scared that it would be my last chance’ Richie choked up on his last word, and clenched his fist tightly in the hopes it’d stop him crying (he’d cried enough that day, thank you very much!).

  
A beat of silence passed.

  
‘Well, it’s not’ Eddie said softly.

Richie looked up in confusion, opening his mouth to ask what he meant, before he was stopped by the gentle press of Eddie’s lips to his own.

The barely-there kiss seemed to turn a switch on in both of their heads, as they both launched themselves ungainly at each other lips first, arms flying desperately around the other to pull them closer and closer (Jesus would have to be the size of a goddamn pee to fit between them at that point). They kissed like wild teenagers, their lips moving quickly but deliberately, and they kept banging their noses into each other as they twisted their heads from one side to the other. Eddie kissed like he was starving, and Richie was surprised at how messy the other man was being, especially has he felt the graze of his teeth sharply on his bottom lip. Richie gave back as good as he got, of course, throwing all those 30 off years of desperation and love into the way his lips connected with Eddie’s, probably letting out all kinds of pathetic and ridiculous sounds that the other would definitely rib him about later. Really, as first (well, technically third) kisses go, it wasn’t half bad…

They pulled away after hours (or minutes… or seconds… Richie had no idea), both breathing heavily with their hands gripped harshly in each other’s clothes (and hair… Richie was pretty convinced Eddie was going to pull out chunks out of his hair which, given his already impressive receding hairline, would not do him any favours appearance wise…). Eddie regained his breath properly before Richie (given he was in much better shape, as Richie had felt under his polo shirt as he’d briefly felt him up in their make out session… The prospect of getting to see what was under that shirt, especially now that he was sure there was no gaping hole of a wound in the way, excited Richie to no end… But then, everything about Eddie excited him, even his fucking nose hair, probably) and loosen his grip on both his hair and the front of his shirt.

He began to pull back, only for Richie to dig his hands even tighter around the other man’s clothes. He laughed breathily, bringing his hands up to Richie’s and gently easing them off of his clothes, he kept his hands rested tenderly over the other’s.

‘Let go of me, you leech!’ He scolded playfully, his voice was a little breathless and his lips looked red… Richie tried not to think about that (which went about as well as you’d think). ‘I just think we should maybe take this… slow or something?’

‘Slow? Yes of course, I can do slow, I can go so slow that I’ll be your snail, baby, let me be your turtle… Wait, are turtles even slow or is that just tortoise?’ Richie mumbled incoherently as he nuzzled his face against the warmth of Eddie’s neck, feeling more hearing the chortles the other erupts into. He then abruptly pulled back, eyeing Eddie suspiciously. ‘Hold on… We just made out for like 12 hours and you didn’t mention my germs once… Who the fuck are you and what have you done with Eddie Kaspbrak?!’

‘Yeah but I figured you’d have realised I actually like your germs a lot, asshole!’ Eddie rolled his eyes, but his tone was fond. ‘Anyway, I think we should get to bed… Maybe 17-year-old me could stay up to God fucking knows how late making out with his boyfriend but 40-year-old me should have been asleep like 3 hours ago!’

‘Boyfriend?’ Richie asked slightly dazedly. ‘You mean me, right?’

‘Yeah, dumbass, unless you see anyone else I just confessed to being in love with in this room with me’ He rolled his eyes again, and Richie almost made another joke about Eddie being careful about getting stuck like that, but the fact Eddie had told him he loved him again was enough to cause that thought to fizzle out as quickly as it had come. ‘Now, stop distracting me, bed!’

The last word was punctuated by him pushing and prodding at Richie to move.

‘Okay okay, ow, ow, your fingers are fucking sharp you know that!? Are you a fucking cactus?’ Richie dodged a finger as it began to come towards him again, laughing as he did so. Once he was standing, he became aware of just how tired he really was, his legs wobbled slightly, and he was pretty sure he was swaying on the spot. Eddie got up too, and made his way to the door, which made Richie reach out to grab his arm frantically again. ‘Wait!’

Eddie turned around, looking instantly worried.

‘What? What is it?’ He demanded hurriedly, glancing Richie over as if expecting to find his legs missing or some other kind of injury.

‘I just… I just wanted to tell you that I do too…’ Richie started awkwardly. ‘Love you, that is… Of course.’

He clarifies at the end, realising Eddie is still looking at him like he’s grown an extra head (hell, maybe he has… at this point literally nothing could bring his spirits down!).

‘Oh’ Is all Eddie says in reply, before he is striding back into Richie’s space and kissing the hell out of him again. They pull away after a few seconds this time, as Eddie clears his throat and motions to the door. ‘Ok I should… I’m just going to… Yep.’

He darts out of the room as Richie watches after him, still convinced he’d fallen asleep and was now in the midst of a very elaborate and realistic dream… He then set into the motions of getting ready for bed, though he wasn’t entirely sure he was processing anything he was actually doing. He had just stripped down to just his boxers in the bathroom as he heard his door click open and then close again. Frozen in fear for a split second, he grabbed the nearest item (which just so happened to be his very worn toothbrush) and gingerly stepped out into the room. He was met by a very bemused looking Eddie, who was dressed in a set of matching pyjamas (which made Richie’s eye twitch as he tried his damnedest to not laugh and/or rib him about it… Not tonight anyway, that was something for future Richie to have the pleasure of doing!).

‘Why are you threatening me with your toothbrush?’ He asked, turning away, as he started to scramble his way under Richie’s sheets. ‘Not gonna lie, kinda surprised you actually use one!’

He glanced up at Richie with a look so simultaneously evil and innocent that he almost got whiplash. He realised he should probably be panicking more about the fact Eddie Kaspbrak was currently burrowing himself into his bed, but surprisingly, he wasn’t? There was just something about it that felt so right, something so inevitable and meant to be, that he couldn’t possibly bring himself to panic about it!

‘You’re hilarious.’ Richie replied, deadpan, before realising he was essentially standing there practically naked… ‘I’ll just go…’

He gestured weakly back to the bathroom, where he put his toothbrush back and slipped his sleeping t-shirt on… He half wished he had some form of sleeping shorts, so he didn’t feel so exposed.

Once back out, he realised Eddie had switched off the main light, leaving the bedside lamps on, giving the room a warm and homely glow. Really, for such a shit inn, they sure did know how to create some decent ambient lighting!

He moved swiftly across the room, before slipping into the bed beside Eddie (who was currently curled inwards, lying on the right side… He looked adorable and Richie felt that familiar tug from his heart).

‘You look adorable’ He told the man, because he wanted to and because he could!

Said man blushed and slapped his shoulder as he messily wriggled his way into the cool sheets, turning so he was facing the other. They were pretty close, and even without his glasses, Richie could make out the other pretty clearly.

‘Shut up, dick’ Was Eddie’s belated reply, no real force behind his words, especially as his eyes had started to slip shut.

‘Hey, hey, turn the light off first before you fall asleep, old man!’ Richie spoke with a slight slur, feeling his eyelids droop as well. He himself reached over his shoulder to turn the light off on his side, and soon they were drenched in darkness. Eddie might have said something in retort, though it was mostly muffled by the blanket pulled up practically to his.

Richie watched his dark shape for a few more moments before he let his eyes close completely. He felt a hand come out of the warm cocoon they had created (Eddie’s hand, probably… Hopefully) and press itself to the tip of his nose gently before pulling away.

‘What’s’at?’ He asked groggily, still not opening his eyes.

‘You’re adorable too’ Eddie whispered as reply, so quiet that Richie was pretty sure he had imagined it.

Richie was just drifting off when he was struck with a thought, which didn’t happen often so he thought he’d let Eddie know, softly saying his name in as hushed a voice as he could manage.

‘Mmm?’ Eddie murmured, followed by a deep sigh.

‘You know what this means?’ Richie asked sleepily.

‘What?’

‘Ben was right, our kiss of true love is what brought you back!’ He rustled the sheets to brush his foot against Eddie’s ankle.

‘Get your foot off me, dick!’ Eddie’s tone probably would’ve sounded more threatening if he hadn’t said it around a yawn. ‘And I don’t know… I still think it was a fluke…’

Richie’s heart sank for 0.2 of a second before he realised Eddie was probably joking.

‘Asshole…’ He weakly punched Eddie’s pyjama covered shoulder.

There was a few more beats of silence, Richie could feel himself falling into a deep and comfortable sleep, so much so that he wasn’t even sure if he was entirely conscious when he said.

‘Hey Eds, do you reckon we could bring Stan with our fairy tale love-magic?’

‘Go the fuck to sleep dickwad…’

And he did, his hand rested on the space between their pillows, the small and shallow puffs of breath coming out of Eddie’s mouth brushing their ways across it like a summer’s breeze… Richie was already asleep, so of course he couldn’t consciously think it, but he was pretty sure this was the happiest he had ever been.

Little did they know, somewhere in a morgue in Atlanta a very disoriented Stanley Uris was woken up suddenly, completely nude. His first conscious thought as he stirred was ‘fucking finally!’, although he wasn’t yet completely aware of what he was celebrating…

**Author's Note:**

> well there was that lol... i never intended this to b this long... honest...
> 
> (i kno i didnt say stan was alive in the tags but like u rly think i'd keep him dead?!? do i look like a monster to u!? I, unlike stephen king, want only good things for the characters i write lol!)
> 
> i'm bad at writing so no promises i'll do anymore for this fandom lol... but i may do?? who knows what the future holds u kno?
> 
> really appreciate any kudos/comments y'all leave <3


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